I used to be tied up at home with a plastic rope. My heart broke when they chained me…. I was chained when I first came [to Galuh]. I get chained often—at least 10 times since I have come because I fought with the others. It can last for one day to a week. I had to go to the toilet on the spot, in the drain in the room. The staff slaps and hit me often, already three times because I peed and got angry. Tell the government, I want to go home.

When Indonesia’s Mount Sinabung sprang back to life several years ago, erupting and releasing destructive lava flows following 400 years of peaceful dormancy, many of the surrounding villages that had established themselves on its slopes had to be evacuated.

Half a century ago in Indonesia, following the events of October 1 1965, 500,000 to one million people accused of being members or supporters of the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI) were murdered, and many hundreds of thousands of people were detained without trial, perished or exiled. The impunity surrounding these mass killings has been encircled in social and political amnesia. There has been no official attempt to find out who was behind the killings, who the victims were exactly, and where they are buried.

A law that makes gay sex punishable by public caning took effect Friday in a conservative Indonesian province.

The law in Aceh province stipulates that anyone caught having homosexual sex can face up to 100 strokes of a cane, a fine of up to 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) of gold (about $37,400) and imprisonment of up to 100 months. Adulterers are also subject to 100 lashes of a cane, but not to the fine or imprisonment.

Aceh is considered more devout than other areas of Muslim-majority Indonesia and is the only province allowed to observe a version of Islamic Shariah law.